Japanese Contender for PM Ichiko Ozawa Slams 'Simple-Minded' Americans

(Aug. 26) -- A senior politician who is challenging Japan's prime minister for leadership of the country has slammed Americans as "simple-minded," and confessed that he doesn't like Brits much, either.

Ichiro Ozawa, 68 -- known as the "Shadow Shogun" for his backroom dealing -- today announced that he would stand against Prime Minister Naoto Kan during next month's election for the leadership of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan. If Ozawa wins the post, which he lost last year after a funding scandal, he will take over as prime minister.

Japanese Leadership Contender, Ichiro Ozawa, Slams 'Simple-Minded' Americans

Tokyo Shimbun / AP

Ichiro Ozawa, a senior lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Japan, speaks to reporters early Thursday. Ozawa announced he would challenge Japan's prime minister for his job in an internal party election next month.

However, his bid for power may already be doomed, thanks to some undiplomatic comments made at a political conference on Wednesday morning. "I like Americans, but they are somewhat monocellular," he said, according to the BBC. "When I talk with Americans, I often wonder why they are so simple-minded." Ozawa then balanced those damning words with extremely faint praise. "I don't think Americans are very smart," he said, "but I give extremely high credit for democracy and choices by its people."

After savaging the United States, Ozawa turned his attention to the U.K., declaring, "I don't like British people."

However, he admitted admiration for the way the country is "thoroughly implementing democracy" -- according to Agence France-Presse -- and said he respected the nation's discipline, citing the World War II film "The Bridge on the River Kwai." That wasn't the wisest reference point, as the 1957 David Lean movie details the suffering of British prisoners of war enlisted as slave laborers by Japan. Ozawa, though, seemed to like the fact that the Brits are seen marching in orderly ranks throughout the Oscar-winning picture.

British veterans of the campaign in Southeast Asia said Ozawa's comments were distasteful, but refused to throw similar insults his way. "I don't like this, I must say. He is just having a go at us but I think we should just let that sort of thing pass us by," John Weeks, 92, who served as an artillery captain in Burma (now called Myanmar), told The Telegraph. "The Japanese are clever people, there's no doubt about that, and I wouldn't say anything nasty about them, so it's rather unfortunate this man has said something nasty about us."

Ozawa has gained a reputation for making offensive announcements. During a visit to the president of the Japan Buddhist Federation last November, Ozawa described Christianity as an "exclusive and self-righteous religion" and claimed that "European and U.S. societies with a background of Christianity are bogged down."